Dogs Against Romney Website

If being entitled to fifteen minutes of fame is everyone's right. My life up until now has consisted of a few thirty-second spots gained by writing letters to the editor of our regional paper. As do many, I yearn for more exposure. However, none seek more fame or fortune than the website developer of Dogs Against Romney.com.

A political columnist in a regional paper reported about the creation of this site by Scott Crider. According to the article, Mr. Crider, a marketing consultant who specializes in social media, while cruising the internet found an article describing an event that was observed and reported in an article in the Boston Globe. Sound like hearsay of hearsay of what someone else might have seen. It gets worse when you hear when the event occurred.

Reportedly in 1982, Mr. Romney, his wife and five boys were traveling by car on vacation to Canada. Their rather large dog was cared on top of the car in a cage to which Romney had built a windshield. At some point during the trip, the boys noticed some brownish stuff sliding down the rear window and alerted Romney.

Finding a gas station where water was provided, Romney preceded to wash the dog and the car using a water hose. Crider saw these actions as a very “cold-blooded thing to do”. What did he do in response? Mr. Crider created a website extolling human treatment of our critters. No, he created one on which he “exploits” the event for profit by selling T-shirts and other items. The article reported that T-shirt sales on the website were skyrocketing. If, as quoted, Mr. Crider is so repulsed by the treatment received by some “critter”, then I assume the money from the sale of the items on his website must go to animal rights organizations. However, I could find nothing on the website that indicates that any of the money goes to help anyone, but his employees and himself. And, maybe the Democratic Party.

Notwithstanding, his entrepreneurial ability reminds me of what Mitch Romney did when he saved the Olympic Games by using the same skills that helped make him successful to turn a financial failure into a successful event. It is these types of individuals and actions that have made America the envy of the world. I believe both of these men deserve credit for their profit-making skills.

Seriously, what was Romney to do? I'm sure the dog and the family enjoyed the vacation more by taking the dog along than they would had the dog been left behind in a boarding kennel. Truthfully, none of us can probably think of a way to handle the situation faced by Romney any better. (Seriousness is over. I promise.)

The article farther reported that Mr. Crider was “hearing from some high-ranking officials in the Obama campaign” who obviously want to make political hay out of the event. When you take a story that should be published in the Reader's Digest humor section so it can be enjoyed by all and try to make political hay from it, they must think voters are about two sandwiches shy of a picnic.

I'm sure we all can enjoy the humor in this report and also see some reasons to vote for Romney. Here is a man who loves his family, who loves his pets, who can think on his feet, and who knows how to get rid of stinky stuff. I hope we voters know as much.

Scott Crider's vision to see an opportunity for financial gain and his ability to take advantage of it to make money speaks volumes for the opportunities afforded to all by our capitalist economy where bright people can turn ideas into money. I suspect the reporter from the Globe who broke the story wishes he'd seen the opportunity to profit off the event.

Further examining the incident with some wisdom and knowledge about dogs may reveal a true area of concern. Maybe, those not fortunate enough to have been born and raised in the South have never seen a dog in the back of a pickup truck before. All southerners know how much most dogs love the wind in their face, so the only thing that could be wrong in the incident as described would be the construction of the windshield. Did it provide access to fresh air or not? That would be the real concern for the dog.

Those trying to benefit politically from the incident must assume that dogs would prefer to be cooped up in a car with them instead of out in the fresh air. Undoubtedly, dogs prefer fresh air to some of the smelly stuff politicians keep putting out. But, before I get too repulsed by Romney's cold-blooded act of preventing his dog from enjoying the wind in his face, I suppose, I need to investigate the blue prints for the windshield. Maybe, I should also call Mr. Crider to make certain that he is not donating the profits from the website. Or, I could just create a website called PAW, People Against Windshields or Proper Animal Windshields, to try my hand at making money. You ready to buy PAW T-shirts? (You ready to buy anything these particular politicians are putting out? You ready to read more posts by me?)